


With Me

by holographicbubbles



Series: Elsamaren Summer!! [1]
Category: Frozen (Disney Movies)
Genre: Elsamaren Summer 2020 (Disney), F/F, It was supposed to be culture but it kind of ran away with me, anyway, sorry - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-12
Updated: 2020-07-19
Packaged: 2021-03-04 21:34:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,056
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25223218
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/holographicbubbles/pseuds/holographicbubbles
Summary: "I wasn't lying earlier, when I said that you belong up here wi-""When I said that you belong up here."Elsamaren Week - Day 1, Culture and Heritage [rated Teen for minor usage of curses]Elsamaren Week - Day 7, "Why do lullabies always have some terrible warning in them?" [rated G]
Relationships: Elsa/Honeymaren (Disney)
Series: Elsamaren Summer!! [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1827406
Comments: 24
Kudos: 58
Collections: Elsamaren Summer 2020





	1. please if you want a story, read this

**Author's Note:**

> Well. I tried to get this to be about culture and stuff but it kind of ran away with me, oops. Anyway. This is Day 1 of 8, since I won't be doing day 9. You know me, the stereotypical ace. Heh.
> 
> Also, happy first non-binary awareness week!

“So you’ll stay?” Honeymaren asked, her face tinged a light red. 

Elsa bit her lip to keep her face from exploding into a grin so that she could get the words out. Something about Honeymaren... made her feel warm. Happy. She barely knew the woman, but she’d decided that she was safe. That she was going to be there for her when she needed someone and Anna was away. Probably because Honeymaren hadn’t left her side since she returned. “Honeymaren," she announced bravely. "I’ll stay.”

“Oh,” Honeymaren coughed. “Of course,” she shuffled her feet and rubbed the back of her neck. “I didn’t expect anything different.”

"Also," Honeymaren said, her tone lighter and less embarrassed. "You can call me Maren."

"Okay then, Maren," Elsa smirked at her, playfully. “I just…” she rubbed the shawl in her hands, fingers tracing over the patterns. A Northuldra scarf, from one of their oldest families. Her mother’s scarf. As she traced the symbols over and over, weaving the embroidered pattern into her memory, she had never felt so disconnected from their meaning. As a child, they were just pretty designs sewn into her mother’s favorite scarf. But now, _now_ she knew that they had a much deeper meaning tied into her mother’s past. And ultimately, Elsa’s too. And that she knew next to nothing of it at all. The thought made her chest ache a little. 

“My mother never really talked about her past,” Elsa sighed. “It was that one lullaby and that was pretty much… well, _all_ of what she ever told Anna and me. I’ll stay, because I belong here more than I do in Arendelle, but I-” she bit her lip again, harder this time, against the tears that threatened to spill. It was _so_ hard, not being able to form what she wanted to say, to be unable to get the meaning she wanted to convey across. “I guess that I don’t really belong here that much either. I don’t know anything of your culture. I don’t know anything about my Northuldra heritage. I-” she broke off and looked toward Kristoff and Anna over at another fire. 

“You feel like an outsider, a misfit,” Maren submitted, finishing off the sentence. Elsa nodded, keeping her eyes on her sister. “An imposter, even,” Maren continued to fill in. “Stop biting your lip. You’re going to make it bleed.”

Elsa let her lip slide out from in-between her teeth. “And It’s like I don’t fit in anywhere,” she muttered. Anna’s eyes were glazed over in ardor for the man before her. “Not the way anyone wants me to. I’m too magic for Arendelle but at the same time, I’m too Arendellian for here. I’ve only ever felt like I truly belong at Ahtohallan,” Elsa shuddered. “But look where that got me. Dead. Frozen. _Alone.”_

“I wasn’t lying, before,” Maren said. “When I said that you belong up here, wi-” she made a face that looked like she was choking, and Elsa dropped Bruni (who she hadn’t even realized she’d been holding) and shot up. Maren recovered quickly, so no back-thwacking was required. Thankfully. Bruni jumped back into her palm as soon as she sat back down. “When I said that you belong up here. You do. And guess what?”

Elsa tilted her head up slightly to look at Maren’s chiseled face and arched a brow.

“Things can change, things can be learned. You can learn our culture and learn about your heritage. Did your mother ever mention her younger brother?”

Elsa’s head shot up that time. “Her _what?”_

“He was barely a toddler when the mist fell, named Irján. I could bring you to talk to him, if you’d like. And if you’d like, I could also help you adjust to and learn about our culture.”

Elsa’s face brightened. “Please,” she said, practically throwing her arms into the air and remembering a little too late that she was still holding Bruni. With a nervous chuckle, she watched the salamander, who had now set himself on fire, fly through the air before her brain caught up with her body and she struck her hand out to catch him.

Of course, Maren had seen her reaction, that was the polar opposite of a reaction, and had shot her hand out too.

In the exact same place. 

Elsa gasped when their hands brushed against each other, Maren’s skin soft against her own. And then she winced when Bruni fell into her palm, still ablaze. “Ow, ow, ow-” she hissed before the spirit extinguished his flame.

“Are you okay?”

Elsa conjured a pile of snow and stuck her burnt hand in it. “I’m fine.”

“Let me take a look at that,” Maren gently pulled her hand from the snow and traced her fingers over the skin around the burn. Elsa suppressed a hiss and fought the urge to jump away, but not because it hurt. Elsa wasn’t really sure why she wanted to do so. With a slight laugh, Maren placed Elsa’s hand back down.

“What’s so funny?”

“The burn, probably very mild, it’s in the shape of Bruni’s feet,” Maren chuckled and took her hand back. She brushed her fingers over the pink skin. “Does that hurt?”  
Elsa shook her head. “No,” she answered, her throat suddenly dry and her stomach tingly. Maren nodded.

“Good. I’ll go get some salve. Apply it every day and you should be good in two.” Maren stood up and headed over to Yelena. Elsa pulled her hand, still tingling from where Maren’s fingers had brushed over it, back to her chest. 

Tingling. From the burn. Of course.

* * *

Elsa had returned to Arendelle along with the rest of her family, and after two weeks she felt comfortable enough to finalize her abdication. And so, now, just half a week later, she was leaving Arendelle to move into the forest. (Elsa’s hand hadn’t stopped feeling tingly since her return, despite the burn being long healed. She decided to ignore the feeling, since it was obviously not a big deal. It wasn’t like it hurt.) Anna and Kristoff barely took notice of Elsa’s feeble goodbyes as they stared lovingly at each other, lost in the other one’s eyes. She did manage to get in a few words with Anna, thankfully.

“Anna…”

The redhead pulled her into a bone-crunching hug. “I’m gonna miss you,” she sniffed.

Elsa let the tears run down her cheeks, slowly vaporizing after they froze. “I’ll just be across the fjord,” she tried to reassure her sister.

“I know, I know,” Anna pulled away. “But you better tell me if something big happens or I will…”

That was more like the Anna Elsa knew. “Or you’ll what?” she teased. Anna clenched and unclenched her fists.

“I’ll do something!” she exclaimed. “I’ll punch you in the face! I’ll swing at you with a sword! I’ll-” Anna groaned. “Mark my words,” she grumbled before turning back to Kristoff and staring dreamily at him. 

So Elsa wasted most of her energy on saying goodbye to Olaf. 

“Hey, little guy,” she said. 

“Elsa!” Olaf wrapped his little twig arms around Elsa’s waist. “I’m going to miss you,” he sighed, his voice hollow in a disturbing way. Elsa had never heard Olaf sound so sad. 

“You’ll see me every Friday or even more often,” she said, her tone, she hoped, something light-hearted. “And I’ll always be just a letter away.” 

“Just a letter away,” Olaf repeated quietly. Elsa pressed her thumb to where, had he been a human, his heart would have been. 

“I am with you,” she whispered. “Even though we may be apart, I am always with you. Just now, I’ll be somewhere that I actually belong.” Up North.

With the Northuldra.

With the other four spirits.

With Maren.

Wait, _what?_

* * *

Elsa slid off the Nokk, removing the make-shift saddlebags she’d created. In them, she carried the few things Maren had said to bring: clothes (though Elsa now mainly wore ones of ice, she still needed a cloth base to create them), and any important belongings that she needed. All in all, that was really just Sir Jorgenbjorgen, because even now, sometimes she just needed something to hug as she fell asleep. 

Maren was there to greet her with a wide grin on her face and flushed cheeks because of the dropping temperatures. “Welcome back. I’ll help you get settled. I hope you don’t mind sharing a tent with me, I have extra space in mine now that Ryder moved in with his boyfriend.” Maren’s eyes were a warm, endearing brown, like melted chocolate and tree bark and spongy earth all mixed into one.

“What?” Elsa tore her eyes away from Maren’s in order for the words to catch up with her brain. “Oh.. Oh, yeah, of course.”

Maren’s teeth scraped against her lower lip and her grin melted into a softer smile. “Great! Yelena thought it might be a good idea for you to have a friend in getting used to everything, so she asked me if I could do so, saying that she saw how close we had already gotten after the mist lowered and stuff like that.”

Elsa nodded, following Maren down a path and hauling her bags behind. Maren saw this and turned around, extending her hand to help Elsa with her bags. Elsa gratefully placed one in her extended palm. “So…” she coughed. “About my mother’s brother… I- uh,” she sighed. “I’d like to meet him… I guess as soon as I could?”

“Okay!” Maren grinned. “Let’s just set your things down and then I can take you to him.”  
Elsa nodded, sticking her tongue between her teeth as she continued down the path. They made it to Maren’s- and now Elsa’s- tent, which was larger than the other tents that she had seen along the way. Maren walked inside and placed the bag she was carrying down next to a cot. 

“Well…” she waved her hands around to emphasize the interior. “Welcome to your new home!”

Elsa looked around at the trinkets lining the walls. Dried rose petals and pinecones perfumed the air inside the tent and she noticed a small bag of them hanging in a corner, a reindeer painted onto a rock by what she assumed was a very young Maren or Ryder, a stretch of hide hanging along a wall. “It’s beautiful,” she said shyly. 

“There’s a lot more for you to see!” Maren beamed. “Come on, I’ll take you to Irján now. I haven’t gotten a chance to talk to him much this past week, but he mentioned in passing that he was excited to meet you.”

Elsa felt yet another smile appear on her face. “I'm excited too.”. 

Maren walked backwards out of the tent, not taking her eyes off of Elsa’s face. “What was Ahtohallan like?”

Elsa shrugged and met Maren’s eyes, surprised at the way the intense gaze made her flinch. She thought she was sure that looking at someone was not supposed to make her flinch, but she learned something new every day, it seemed. “Cold. Empty. And yet… so _full?”_ her eyes squeezed shut. “And painful. But fulfilling…” her words caught in her throat. “I died, Maren,” she whispered and wrapped her arms around herself. “And I thought I was never going to be able to keep my promise, I thought that I had condemned you all to have to suffer in the mist for eternity and _Anna…_ I thought that I’d failed her. And I thought that I’d failed you,” she breathed. “You’d asked me what the sky was like and I knew that I wasn’t ever going to see it with you and I realized that I wanted to be able to see it with you but that-”

Maren placed a hand on her shoulder. Elsa weakly opened her eyes to find the world around her blurred. She thought, maybe, just maybe, she might have been crying. “I’d like to see the sky with you, too.”

Elsa wiped her cheeks of their frozen tears, sniffed, smiled, and nodded. “Tonight, we can see the sunset together,” she said.

Maren smiled, “I’d like that.” She leaned in closer until she was close in a way that was typically reserved for Anna or Sven or Kristoff or Olaf. Not someone she barely knew. Normally, Elsa would have flinched away. But with Maren, _this_ felt right in a way that not even Anna or Sven or Kristoff or Olaf made her feel. Warm, in a way that was different than what her family made her feel. “But first, let’s meet your uncle.”

Irján was tall, taller than Elsa remembered her mother, but he bore a striking resemblance to Iduna that made Elsa’s breath catch in her throat. “Is it really you?” he asked, the corners of his eyes crinkling as he fought back tears. “Iduna’s child?”

“I am,” Elsa barely whispered, her voice sore and shaky. “And you’re really her brother?”

“I am,” Irján answered. Elsa fell to her knees in a sob. The man bent down next to her and took one of her cold hands in his. “Can you tell me about her? I barely ever got to know her and- well, what was her favorite food? Favorite drink?”

Elsa regained her composure with a sniff and only upon backing up a little did she remember that Maren was still in the tent with them. She bumped into her and sent the woman spiraling back. Elsa instinctively grabbed her wrist and pulled her back to her feet, the moment ending with both of them (now standing side by side) looking into each other's eyes, cheeks pink. Irján watched with a smile. 

“She… My mother loved flatbrød with cloudberry jam and she loved stewed reindeer...” Elsa trailed off, looking at the floor. “I used to eat them with her and Anna… before…” Elsa swallowed.

“We have things here like those,” Maren supplemented when Elsa’s voice broke, accounting for the stall in conversation. “Báistebiđus, that’s stewed reindeer, and we have our types of flatbreads. And we have gáhkko, which I think is similar to your flatbrød. And we eat plenty of cloudberries. We could go pick some, if you’d like.”

Elsa nodded slowly, coming out of her thoughts. The first thing she noticed was how her hand still tingled, stronger now, where she’d gripped Maren’s wrist earlier. She got a hug from Irján and then left him to think about his late sister. 

As they left, Maren whispered a few things in Elsa's ears. "That meant a lot to him, you know."

Elsa nodded, her face deepening into a frown. Maren squeezed her hand. 

"Hey, and I know that you said that you feel a bit like an outsider, like you don't fit in anywhere, but I think you fit right here, with me. And I'll be by your side to help you if you ever doubt that! Just like I am now."

That time, Elsa smiled.

They spent the rest of the day picking berries and enjoying them side by side.

* * *

Elsa took Maren to see the sunset, as promised. She pointed out that the sun sets in the west and that it was best to view over water or from somewhere with a good view, and Maren took her to a spot.

"Maren," she finally got the courage to ask, "when Anna and I were first here... what was the song that you sang for us?"

A low hum emitted from Maren's throat as her fingers crept their way into Elsa's. "It was a a joik," she answered before diving into a deeper explanation. "It's a type of Northuldra song, kind of a type of chant."

"And the lyrics..." Elsa prompted. "What do they mean?"

"Well, sometimes they have a meaning, but they also might not. It depends, really. Most of the time," Maren pressed her fingers to Elsa's chest. "It comes from the heart. It's meant to evoke emotions and excite a person, an animal, or a place."

"Huh," Elsa tore her eyes off Maren's hand and looked back at they sky. "You and your tribe have beautiful voices," she admitted shyly.

"Thank you," Maren blushed. "You do too," she said, her voice just shy of being a whisper. Elsa smiled. 

"Thank you."

They sat in silence for a few heartbeats, gazes fixed on the exploding colors of the sky, but Maren never took her hand off Elsa's chest. 

And Elsa, for some reason, didn't want her to.

“I like this,” Elsa decided as the sky faded to pink. 

“I do too,” Maren gushed and gasped over the melting sun. “I’d seen this before,” she said quietly. “But it was mostly abstract hues painted across the sky before fading into black. Why didn’t anyone tell me that something could be so beautiful?” Maren’s eyes widened as the last strokes of sunlight disappeared below the waves. “Or that I would be seeing it with someone so beautiful- shit, did I say that out loud?”

Elsa smirked, but it evened out into a heartfelt, watery smile. “You think I’m beautiful?” she asked quietly. Maren leaned into her face until their noses brushed across each other. Elsa found it odd that she still didn’t feel the need to pull away. 

“Elsa,” Maren pushed her finger under Elsa’s chin, flowing tendrils of blonde hair curling around it. “Your beauty is ethereal.” 

Elsa smiled at her.

"Also," Maren continued. "I said a few weeks ago that you belong up here. I _didn't_ say that you belong up here with me."

Maren's fingers ghosted her cheek. "But I think that you do, if you'd let me believe that."

"I would," Elsa whispered, her voice hoarse. She grinned lopsidedly and wondered if, for once, her eyes shone in love like Anna's did for Kristoff.

Then, she opted to let her heart guide her to do what felt most natural.

Which was apparently leaning in for a kiss??

Huh.

Maren’s lips were exactly how she’d imagined- (she’d imagined them???) warm and soft. She kissed like someone who’d done so before, but also like someone who hadn’t- hesitant, but patient, kind, flowing. Elsa wrapped her arms around Maren’s neck and pulled the woman closer. 

“Shit,” she gasped when she pulled away and ran her fingers through the blonde tangle that was her hair. “It’s been a day! I’m never going to hear the end of this from Anna.”


	2. i'm so sorry this is complete bs

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Uh. This was never intended to happen but here we are, a second chapter to With Me. And it is nonsensical and makes no sense. 
> 
> Please bear with me, I don't know how to summarize this. 
> 
> Elsamaren Summer 2020, Day 7 - "Why do lullabies always have some terrible warning in them?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> blame this mess on ravrav i was told to bs it

“Remember when I said, ‘why do lullabies always have some terrible warning in them?’” Maren asked, coming to sit next to Elsa, their legs brushing as they hung over the edge of a shelf overlooking the sunset. It had become a routine of theirs since that first time, their first time of well, everything- Elsa’s first day in the forest, their first sunset together, their first kiss.

“Mhm,” Elsa said, resting her head down on her girlfriend’s ( _ her girlfriend’s!)  _ shoulder. Maren’s fingers twined into her hair and Elsa’s lips brushed her palm, closing her eyes. 

“Open your eyes, you romantic,” Maren teased. “The sun isn’t even close to being fully set.”

The world was reduced to blurry streaks when Elsa opened her bleary eyes, but she focused on the sun going down. “What about when you said that, though?”

“When I said what?” 

Elsa rolled her eyes. “”Why do lullabies always have some terrible warning in them?”” she mocked and giggled before letting her head fall to Maren’s lap. “How could you forget that already?”

Maren hummed, stroking the nape of Elsa’s neck. “You know, I’ve said a lot of things.”

“Remember our first time here?”

Maren chuckled, a throaty, deep sound. “How could I forget, Snowflake?”

“Oh, I don’t know,” Elsa mumbled, arching her head back to meet Maren’s fingers. “We’ve been here a bunch of times.”

“Mhm, smooth, Elsa. Using my own words against me.” Elsa could hear the sarcasm laced thickly through Maren’s voice. Elsa’s eyelids fluttered closed. “What’s next, ‘you belong up here?’” Maren coughed, “or better, ‘you belong up here, with me.’”

Elsa’s eyes snapped open and she rolled over to look up at Maren. “You said that! From the start!  _ You said that! _ ” she laughed, throwing her head back, and wiping tears from her eyes. “And you say I’m the romantic!”

Maren rolled her eyes, but a smile was ironed onto her cheeks in such a way that she couldn’t try to hide it. “Oh look, the sun is going down,” her voice was almost emotionless, but laced with laughter. 

“I can see that.” Elsa shook her head and sighed. “Are you trying to get me distracted from my new realizations?”

Maren hummed, twirling Elsa’s hair around her fingers. “Why would I ever do that, snowflake?” she giggled and pulled Elsa up for a kiss. 

“Oh you really are,” Elsa groaned against her lips. “And you’re really bad at it too.”

“I’m the only thing keeping you from smashing your head on the stones beneath you,” Maren muttered back. “Don’t make me drop you.”

“You would never.”

Maren merely pulled away and smirked at her in response. 

“Really, Mare. What did you want from me?” Elsa sat up and leaned away from Maren so that their eyes locked. “About the lullabies and whatever. Or… I could always just throw a pile of snow at you if you never get to the point.”

Maren’s eyebrows raised. “You know, in the middle of a heat wave as hot as this is right now, I’m not sure I would mind that.”

Elsa tangled her fingers in her hair and buried her face in her knees, so that her cheeks were squished and lips protruding. “Ugh! Stchp changing da subcheck!”

Maren ruffled her hair and started to laugh. Elsa looked up. “What’s so funny?!”

“Well, first of all, you sound ridiculous like that, not to mention you  _ look  _ ridiculous-”

Elsa glared her down. 

“Okay, fine, fine, fine. But you’re convinced that I have something important to say and it’s all just dumb things! Do you really think so highly of me?”

“Well, yes!” Elsa flailed her arms around. “Why wouldn’t I? You're the best.”

Maren poked her nose. “You know that’s far from the truth. But really, all I was going to do was come guilt-trip you.”

“WHAT DID I DO? WHY DOES EVERYONE ALWAYS GUILT-TRIP ME!?” Elsa exploded, spluttering. Her hair stormed around her head, a blonde tornado, in a wild breeze that came out of nowhere. “Gale!” Elsa screamed, spitting hair out of her mouth. “Even you?!”

Maren chuckled. “Hey. All I was going to do was laugh at you for ignoring the whole lullaby and then sing you to sleep.”

“What whole lullaby? How do you even  _ ignore  _ a lullaby!?”

Maren pulled Elsa into a hug.  _ “Dive down deep into her sound, but not too far or you’ll be drowned…”  _ she sang, quietly and breathily, into Elsa’s ear. “And yet, after we laughed about lullabies having terrible warnings in them, what did you go and do?”

“I don’t know!” Elsa tried to fight out of Maren’s arms. “I… tried to settle the earth giants, then Anna and I uncovered our parents’- our parents’ ship, and then I sent her away, and then-”

“I’m going to stop you before you work yourself up,” Maren cut her off. “You went too far in Ahtohallan, you dummy. And I thought you said that you wondered about lullabies having terrible warnings all the time!”

“Oh that?” Elsa finally relaxed into Maren’s arms with a yawn. “That was a lie… I panicked…” she mumbled. “You were all like there and I was all like, _ oh pretty girl, shit  _ and then I don’t know where my brain went.”

Maren chortled. “Don’t worry, that’s what happened to me too. When I saw you after you… um, came back to life, the first thing I thought was,  _ she shouldn’t be allowed to be so pretty.  _ And then,  _ oh, she’s even alive!  _ And then,  _ Elsa is alive, long may she live!” _

Elsa chuckled tiredly, closing her eyes. “Sing to me…” she muttered. 

Maren rearranged her so that she was carrying Elsa bridal style. 

_ “Where the north wind meets the sea,”  _ she began.  _ “There’s a river full of memory…” _

_ \--- _

_ “When all is lost,”  _ Maren yawned, placing an asleep Elsa into bed and tucking her in. 

_ “Then all is found.” _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> and yes i included the charlotte line  
> haha no one is going to get that  
> feel special
> 
> also no work tomorrow i'm nowhere near done   
> so that will be coming late

**Author's Note:**

> So that was day one, we'll see what the next seven have in store for me. Do I have ideas for all of them? Ehhhh...  
> I've written the ones I do, though. So yeah. Cool beans.


End file.
